Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Meet Me in Washington?

Most of my work these days is divided
primarily three ways: publishing my new poetry blog, "A Year of Being Here"; researching a historical novel that I plan to write; and actively
opposing the Keystone XL pipeline, tar sands mining, and our continued extraction and use of fossil fuels, which is devastating the planet and contributing so mightily to climate change.

Regarding the latter, I'm very concerned about the disinformation being
spread about the KXL pipeline by our elected officials. At this link
you can read a letter to the editor that I penned last week in protest
of this. We need to hold our public servants to the service of the
truth. My letter concludes:

"At least on the subject of the
Keystone XL, we South Dakotans cannot trust our lone state
representative to speak the truth. Therefore, we the people must speak
it. We can’t trust her to fight for the landowners whose property rights
are being violated and whose water and land are being threatened by
TransCanada, so we the people must fight for them. We can’t trust her to
stand up for her native constituents whose treaty rights are being
abrogated, whose water supplies are being put at risk, and whose ancient
sacred sites will be destroyed by pipeline construction, so we the
people must stand up for them. We can’t trust her to rise to the
struggle against climate change, so we the people must rise."

I
will be at a massive rally in Washington, DC, on 2/17 to pressure our
leaders to reject KXL. Please consider meeting me there! This pipeline
is symbolic of the biggest civil rights issue of our day. Climate change
is affecting every inhabitant of the planet, already creating climate
refugees and threatening many species with extinction. We can't afford
to be silent.